This weekend I guess we will all be subjected to a large dose of nostalgia as we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation on 2nd June 1953.
I was six. My earliest recallable memory is of that day. All the children in our road were sat on long benches in front of the only television in the district. Not ours, I may add. It had a 12 inch screen and was housed in what looked like an antique console. I can close my eyes and see the grainy, black & white picture even now!
The Coronation was watched by 29 million people. It was the first mass shared television event. I find it deeply symbolic that the very earliest memory I have is of a piece of new technology! Definitely the Next BigThing of its day. Other vivid television memories are of the globe spinning for hours as the BBC decided how to handle JFK’s assassination in 1963 and then being up in the middle of the night watching man walking on the moon in 1969.
I wonder if any readers can spot me in the picture at our Coronation Day Street Party?